Trainer
Ignacio Correas saddled Walkwithapurpose and Listen Boy in today’s
$150,000 Caesar’s Wish Stakes and saw them run first and second in the
one mile test for 3-year old fillies today at Laurel Park.

Both fillies are Sagamore Farm home-breds, the winner by Candy Ride (ARG), the runner-up by After Market.

“It’s a great day for Sagamore,” Correas said.

Walkwithapurpose
was the prohibitive 2-5 favorite under Jeremy Rose and won off by 9-1/2
lengths in 1:38.38. Listen Boy, a 45-1 longshot, rallied under Horacio
Karamanos and beat Sense of Reality and three others to the finish
line.

“The
plan was to break sharp and if they wanted to go fast enough to clear
us they’d have to be fast and they weren’t quite fast enough,” Rose
said. “I was happy to see she got pressure and still respond. I think
she has more there. I thought this was the most impressive performance
because she was pressured. She responded with a lot of class.”

Walkwithapurpose
has now won five straight races including three stakes, all at Laurel
Park. Prior to the Caesar’s Wish she captured the Maryland Juvenile
Filly Championship (December 31) and the Wide Country Stakes (February
2).

“She
is amazing,” said Correas. “I really don’t know how good she can be. I
remember the first time I worked her in company and she was awesome, so I
wasn’t worried that she was pressured today. That morning she destroyed
the other horse. She is very competitive though I don’t like my horses
on the lead. I would rather be chasing.”

Listen Boy was making her first stakes attempt and completed a $50 exacta.

“I
always thought she was good enough but she’ll be even better on the
turf,” added Correas. “We gave her a chance to get some black-type and
it worked out well.”

Correas
indicated he would likely use the Twixt Stakes on April 6 at Pimlico
Race Course for Maryland-breds as Walkwithapurpose’s prep race for the
$500,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (G2) on May 17.

“That would give us more than 40 days between that race and the Black-Eyed Susan, which I really like,” said Correas.

Walkwithapurpose, who paid $2.80, improves to 5-of-6 lifetime with earnings of $272,210.

McCARTHY SERVING RIDING SUSPENSION

Promising
apprentice Trevor McCarthy began serving a four-day suspension Friday
for a riding infraction that occurred February 22 at Laurel Park. The
18-year-old will serve the days March 1-2-6-7 but is allowed to ride at
other tracks when Laurel does not conduct live racing.

McCarthy
won 25 races in February, which included eight multiple win days, and
ranks second in the winter meeting standings with 38 victories, three
fewer than fellow bug rider Yomar Ortiz.

Older Comments about Walkwithapurpose Wins Caesar's Wish...

Very impressive win for Walkwithapurpose. Hope she stays healthy and we can see her strut her stuff in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes on May 17th. No need for her to chase other stakes outside of MD, cuz there's plenty of purse money in the Free State.